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110 you that, after protracted negotiations, a schedule of appropriation had been prepared, which was put out in my letter, and it was hoped would meet your approval. I sent this personally by the hands of Col. Kinsman, and being anxious to get immediately to work, directed him to telegraph me if it met your approval, which he did, stating that it had been approved in full. But this I could not make a basis of official action. The estimate itself has never been returned to me, or otherwise acknowledges, and the pressure of new cases has heretofore prevented me from writing to you fully in regard to it. On the 6" of May your wrote to me not to pay teachers out of the Refugee and Freedmen's fund, after the summer vacation, but to arrange to have them paid thereafter by benevolent associations. On the 7" of May I wrote to you submitting an arrangement I had made to secure the Baptist College of Talladega, or a Normal School for freedmen. On the 15" of May this was returned "approved, the payments to be made out of funds that the Assistant Commissioner may have on hand." There have been for a year past no funds on hand beyond the little unexpended balance which may, at times, remain out of the usual monthly estimate. Upon his state of facts I have directed Col Beecher to prepare a special estimate to be filled from the appropriations for "rents and repairs", and beg leave firstly to address myself to this, stating three points. I The only appropriations that have been made out of the appropriations for "rent and repairs", to such [[?]] in this State, since the date of authority from you to expend $25,000., have been the items in each monthly estimate, amounting in the aggregate to $8,238.90/00, although the appropriations have been two of $500,000 each. II Although the estimate for salary of teachers have perhaps been larger in this State than elsewhere, yet their aggregate since November 1st has been but $16,814.27/00, while the amount remitted to your office for the Refugees and Freedman's fund was, November 1st/86, $17,155 13/00, in excess of all expenses of the Bureau in the District up to that date. So that there is nothing in the fact of our having drawn upon the Refugee and Freedmen's fund to prevent us form receiving a pro-rata share, according to the population of this State, if the successive appropriation of $500.000 each. 111 Touching the schedule amounting to $25,600, issuance have been extended on the faith of the dictated from Col Kinsman heretofore referred to, upon which considerable preparations have been made with every promise of permanent usefulness, and which involve proportionality [[?]], and injurious results if they are not made good. Touching the item of $6,000 for the Talladega College, on the faith of similar assurances the American Missionary Association has [[?]] a special effort raised its portion of the money which now waits your final action. According to the very kind suggestion which came from you originally a "Swayne School" is now in operation here which is among the beneficiaries of the appropriation. Arrangements are in progress with the American Missionary Association for our joint employment of an experienced and trustworthy builder to control our first expenditures. Now with regard to teacher's colonies, after the summer vacation. I beg your attention first to the remarkable increase of attendance at our schools. From 2377 on the 1st of November last there has been a progressive increase to 8,812, on the 1st of June, and we are earnest in our expectation that the aggregate will reach 10,000 by the 1st of July. And this is almost altogether Bureau work. With the decline of the war spirit out of which the Educational Associations sprung, and the increasing prospect of enlisting the political [[?]] of the Southern States in the work of common schools, it is more and more evident that such Associations could be relied upon to take the burden off our Lands. And yet you will agree with me that if a permanent support by anywhere attainable, no effort should be spared to bridge the interval which must be crossed to reach it rather than let what has been built up so carefully be dropped and swept away. What I refer to is just this. The hope to have our Constitutional Convention under way by the 1st or 15" of next October, and the new Legislature as soon afterwards as may be. Now if we can but have your sanction and assistance to keep up our schools till that time, I have a strong hope that when the colored people are thus actually represented, even in the Constitutional Convention if need be, the state can be made to take on itself our whole school system, undiminished, which would be a gratification to ourselves, as much as it would be a benefit to them. Hence I sincerely trust that you will authorize me to extend to teachers now employed an assurance that their occupation will continue until the
